i Norge nå.
four hours ago. I came home and took a nap.
I genuinely think nearly everyone I know would adore this program. To me, this is how university is supposed to be. I've been on campus for three days now, and already want to come back next year. We'll start with the statistics.
There are less than 600 students in the summer school. There are 32,000 students at Oslo University in the fall. So, we have a giant campus all to ourselves. It's a beautiful campus with winding cobblestone pathways that lead to hidden lawns, and buildings that don't really seem to follow a set architecture style, but work anyways (all of Oslo is like this). Some of the buildings are distinctly scandinavian, others look like they're straight outs of Pride and Prejudice and others look like downtown Seattle. And then there's the library.
It's enormous, and we get it all to ourselves : D
The people here are brilliant. I've been here three days, and I've already got a posse of ~15 people. First is my roommate, Marianna. She's from Hungary, and amazingly, we're in the same Norwegian class. She's fun, and we try to speak as much Norwegian to each other as possible (she's afraid her English is not too good--it is). Next we have Molla and Christiana from Russia and the Netherlands. They're taking Norwegian art this summer (I'm a little jealous, they get to go on field trips at least once a week). I've also got Phillip from Austria, Turel from Azerbaijan, Wells from the US, and so on. Everyone here is fantastic. Er, well, once they get over the initial "you're from the United States?" There's a little bit of prejudice, but once I say, or they see my Obama stickers, I'm liked. Stupid Bush, making things difficult for the country.
I've even found out that there is ONE other UW student here. His name is apparently Peter, and he's a student of Environmental Policy, or Environmental Science. I haven't found him yet, but I know his room number. I'm clearly stoked about finding a classmate, but would it be weird if I showed up on his door?
However, I am a little worried about my class. We took a placement test today, to make sure we're right for this class, and on the last essay, I got it completely wrong. What I wrote was grammatically correct, but I didn't understand the question. They wanted to know what our first impression of Norway was, but we never learned the word "impression." I checked my textbook once I got out of class, and our textbook dictionary. Not in there. So hopefully, I can argue my way into the class, or I've done well enough on the other sections for it to not matter, but er....
The food has been pretty good at the dorms, but it's kind of killing my stomach. It's almost entirely carbs. Bread and cereal for breakfast, bread and pasta for lunch, and bread and rice and corn for dinner. O.O I haven't seen fruit since I left the states. I nearly bought two fruit cups (yeah the ones filled with sugar) for $5 today. Hopefully this will change, and if not--my stomach will hurt while I laugh with my new friends : D
A little later on I'll write a bit about everything that's happened before I arrived at school. This is just too long for me.
As a last thought---I think it's really awesome NBC has put Countdown on iTunes for free. I can get my Keith Olbermann fix half-way round the world, ha ha.
I genuinely think nearly everyone I know would adore this program. To me, this is how university is supposed to be. I've been on campus for three days now, and already want to come back next year. We'll start with the statistics.
There are less than 600 students in the summer school. There are 32,000 students at Oslo University in the fall. So, we have a giant campus all to ourselves. It's a beautiful campus with winding cobblestone pathways that lead to hidden lawns, and buildings that don't really seem to follow a set architecture style, but work anyways (all of Oslo is like this). Some of the buildings are distinctly scandinavian, others look like they're straight outs of Pride and Prejudice and others look like downtown Seattle. And then there's the library.
It's enormous, and we get it all to ourselves : D
The people here are brilliant. I've been here three days, and I've already got a posse of ~15 people. First is my roommate, Marianna. She's from Hungary, and amazingly, we're in the same Norwegian class. She's fun, and we try to speak as much Norwegian to each other as possible (she's afraid her English is not too good--it is). Next we have Molla and Christiana from Russia and the Netherlands. They're taking Norwegian art this summer (I'm a little jealous, they get to go on field trips at least once a week). I've also got Phillip from Austria, Turel from Azerbaijan, Wells from the US, and so on. Everyone here is fantastic. Er, well, once they get over the initial "you're from the United States?" There's a little bit of prejudice, but once I say, or they see my Obama stickers, I'm liked. Stupid Bush, making things difficult for the country.
I've even found out that there is ONE other UW student here. His name is apparently Peter, and he's a student of Environmental Policy, or Environmental Science. I haven't found him yet, but I know his room number. I'm clearly stoked about finding a classmate, but would it be weird if I showed up on his door?
However, I am a little worried about my class. We took a placement test today, to make sure we're right for this class, and on the last essay, I got it completely wrong. What I wrote was grammatically correct, but I didn't understand the question. They wanted to know what our first impression of Norway was, but we never learned the word "impression." I checked my textbook once I got out of class, and our textbook dictionary. Not in there. So hopefully, I can argue my way into the class, or I've done well enough on the other sections for it to not matter, but er....
The food has been pretty good at the dorms, but it's kind of killing my stomach. It's almost entirely carbs. Bread and cereal for breakfast, bread and pasta for lunch, and bread and rice and corn for dinner. O.O I haven't seen fruit since I left the states. I nearly bought two fruit cups (yeah the ones filled with sugar) for $5 today. Hopefully this will change, and if not--my stomach will hurt while I laugh with my new friends : D
A little later on I'll write a bit about everything that's happened before I arrived at school. This is just too long for me.
As a last thought---I think it's really awesome NBC has put Countdown on iTunes for free. I can get my Keith Olbermann fix half-way round the world, ha ha.